Manchester United's big deal breaker

SIR Alex Ferguson has confirmed he wanted to sign Spain’s World Cup star David Villa in the summer - but was thwarted by Barcelona.

WANTED: David Villa was on radar for Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson []

Ferguson has been criticised by some fans for his low-key spending in the last two years, but he dismissed accusations Manchester United’s owners have tightened the purse strings by claiming he would have been in for Villa if a £40million deal between Valencia and Barca had not been done.

He said: “We have no financial restrictions. If I hadn’t been confident of value for money in the market we maybe would have done something.

“I looked around and there was only one player I would have brought here. But that move was sealed off quite early by the club he went to.”

Ferguson spent around £25m on Chris Smalling, Javier Hernandez and Bebe and is confident his squad are strong enough to compete for the Premier and Champions Leagues.

But he admitted that when the old guard of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville finally retire, he will be in the market for top stars again, saying: “I don’t think we’re at the point where we have to go overboard. There may be a time in the next couple of years where we have to stretch ourselves.

“We’d need to get really top players in to galvanise the younger players coming through. That’s a possibility.”